santa. >> and lindsay and her two kids and pet bunnies. despite the big dogs, looking at bunnies is like treats. >> send us your card and photos. go to fox friends first at fox news.com. that will do it for us. have a great day, folks. "fox and friends" starts right now, bye. >> gretchen: good morning, everybody. it is wednesday december 5th. i am gretchen carlson. with the white house and congress on the fiscal cliff. hear the new proposal from congressman paul ryan and senator mark rubio. >> steve: will he work with the liberal media. president obama extends extra special invites for sit down with liberal gabbers.

>> brian: he is one of america's favorite coach. his career almost ended early and fans had no idea. the coach revealed something for the very first time. by the way. "fox and friends" starts now. ♪ ♪ "fox and friends". >> steve: you must be conflicted today. >> brian: in what way? >> steve: we have coach k on and any time we have peitro, the super model who has been a friend of your manies, many years. >> brian: i am looking forward to nick rangon. >> gretchen: you will have to duke me out for it then. >> brian: you start with him in 10 minutes. >> gretchen: you want to trade coach for nick it will coach you. >> brian: and edrolins to be named later. >> gretchen: and i always like

rolins. >> brian: pet up with us. she was a young super model. >> gretchen: does she know she was off your list. >> brian: not a world. can we agree as well that is our secret. >> steve: she doesn't have to know. we have a busy three hours starting with a fox news alert. >> gretchen: we have one out of carey. president mursi returning, mohammed that is returning to the palace. he took off amid violent protest. why are they outraged? mursi is expanding his powers. several tv stations going black to protest. >> brian: 11 newspapers went dark yesterday. >> gretchen: thank you. it was taughted as a dream and boeing dream liner forced to make an emergency landing.

united flight was heading from houston to newark, new jersey . a latest problem happening on the same day regulators ordered inspections for the jets for a possible fue line problem. intelligence director james clapper upon will testify behind closed doors about the attack on benghazi that left four americans dead. it was initially referred to al-qaida. revised talking points were used by susan rice who blamed the video. >> she lived 116 years and 100 days. besse cooper passed away and died peacefully in monroe, georgia. cooper was born in 1896 in

tennessee and moved to georgia in world war i to be a teacher. what was the secret to her long life. she minded her own business and avoided junk food. >> brian: was not upset we had the twinkie problem. >> steve: not a problem for her. yesterday we heard from the president of the united states . he sat down with bloomburg. >> brian: not michael. >> steve: the tv company and said you know, i saw that plan, that letter that boehner sent me and not going to do it even though it is the first time the republicans went on record saying they are willing to raise revenues. the president said they have to raise the rates. he looked less like monte hall and more like monte burns. itch >> gretchen: he will not hold more meetings or face to face until the republicans

agree to increase the tax rates. so what was on the paper yesterday was the idea to still increase revenue without increasing the actual tax rate by getting rid of the deductions and loop holes. that is not acceptable . it au pairs a hard line stance now and the meetings are off. >> brian: they talked about a two-step process. maybe we can leave the tax rates except the horrible people that make a lot of money. leave those tax rates in place and do the hard stuff in the second half . year and of course, we have the, the debt ceiling that has to be raised in a month. if the president gets his way and forces the hand of republicans to accept something they will not forget that and he will have another battle with the republicans when the ceiling has to be raised. the president is indicating to

some that there is wiggle room from 35 to 39 percent and willing to accept 39 percent. >> steve: and in the jack kemp awards dinner. we saw two faces that could vy for the republican nomination in 2016. paul ryan and marco rubio. they were there to challenge what the president is asking for. this is paul ryan. >> an election is coming along and people made their choice. policy makers still have a duty to choose between ideas that work and those that don't. when one economic after another failed our working families, it is no answer to express compassion for them or create more government programs that offer promise and don't perform . we must come together and advance new strategies. our complicated and uncertain

tax code is hindering the jobs. you can't open a business if your tax rate is too high or uncertain. i personally oppose the president's plan to raise taxes. [applause] listen, this is not about a pledge. it is not about protecting millionaires and billionaires. for me it is the fact that tax increases he wants would fail to make a small dent in the debt but it would hurt the middle class business and people who work for them. >> gretchen: this is what the campaign was about . people are sick i and tired of hearing the same talking points . people want to see actual tax reform. get the job done and the kick the can down the road is what we have done for the last four years. will president obama be a different president now he's

reelected and will he be concerned about his legacy and take hold and lead discussions on the bigger issues. it upon didn't seem like it is happening in this interview. >> one of the things that i have suggested is that we are not going to be able to come up with a tax reform package that gets it all done in the next two weeks. we'll not be able to come up with a comprehensive enment program in two weeks you look at what ronald reagan did working with bill bradley and others. it was a year and half process. what i suggested put a down payment on taxes, let's let tax rates on the upper income folks go up. >> but do they have to go up to 39 percent. >> let me describe the process. let those go up and then set up a process with the time

certain in the end of 2013 or fall of 2013 where we work on tax reform and look at deductions thatrepublicans and democrats will close. we may lower rates by broadening the base. >> brian: go up to 39 and then 37 . doesn't mind interrupting you to finish his point. >> steve: he answered that. do it right now and maybe we'll do tax reform maybe next year. >> gretchen: who believes that right now. >> brian: i believe he wants his own form of tax reform. >> gretchen: i am interested in what our viewers believe about this. say the republicans cave and it goes up to 39 percent something. >> steve: or from 36. >> gretchen: do you believe that january, february and march that the president will lead discussions on lowering the tax rates once he won the

argument of raising the taxes. >> steve: i think there is a good possibility he would. it would be -- if you raise the rates up to the clinton levels for the top two percent you make 82 billion a year. that is not enough to close the gap . washington post on the editorial page. we looked at what the president suggested and republicans suggested it is nice that they are starting to talk. but the numbers have to be a lot bigger . you need real tax reform. >> gretchen: he won the election with that argument. >> steve: republicans won the congress with their argument that they didn't want to raise the rates. >> brian: if you want to know what the president things. you can go flip channels and find out about the briefing and the president's stance on taxes and goal with the economy and maybe what he will

say in the inauguration. look who was invited to the white house >> chris: who was left to run msnbc. >> happy and ed and arihanna huffington. i don't know if the white house released the fact. but someone from the blog sites saw it. and so wait a minute what is going on. yeah, we were invited for not a strategy but just to explain. >> gretchen: i don't know why anybody. >> brian: five talk show hosts in from the same channel? that is outrageous. >> gretchen: it might be outrageous. i am not surprised by it at all. that's the message . that station is delivering the message of this administration. it makes sense. >> steve: that particular channel that's all they would do. it would be nice to see

somebody from cbs or nbc or fox news channel. >> brian: it is incredible. >> steve: what do you think that the president's people invited the way left people to a sit down there at the white house. e-mail at folks news.com. >> brian: the president will not talk to republicans unless they agree to raise rates. he hasn't talk to cantor in over a year. but time to meet the talk show host of the other channel. >> gretchen: maybe it was a reelection of sorts for the other election. >> brian: it is the text messaging. >> gretchen: where have i been? >> brian: predicted texts this morning. i stunned that they march was in there and confirmed >> chris: more stunned about that having or petra will come back on the program. >> brian: what i will do, i will go upstairs to my office.

i believe i have her original calendar when she first came here. >> gretchen: i thought you would squirt collog. >> brian: i already have. we wear right guard. i like to smell like a locker room. >> steve: you do indeed. >> brian: he used his own gun to save his boss. big bucks. he was fired. that story next. >> steve: and no one wants to cut entitlements. but what if we told you kids are cashing in on social security all legal and there is a lot of them. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪

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♪ >> steve: so far this year the federal government mailed out 778 billion in social security checks. but not all goes to seniors and retired. turns out kids can collect social security, too. is that why the program is going broke? jim is a contributor to the daily caller and he joins us from portland, oregon. good morning to you. >> i am fine. >> steve: 40 year was teaching you decided to go ahead and retire and you have a nice benefit with tiaa kraft . you call would social security and then asked you what about somebody's availability to visit your children? >> that's right.

after deciding whether or not to take my benefit, immediately or do it retroactively which was a surprise to me. i needed to set up an interview with a social security person about my dependent children and their eligibility. a total surprise to me. >> steve: that's right. have always figured that if somebody is kill would or dies, and they have minor children that there is some sort of social security benefit for the survivors, you are telling us that you discovered that you are very much alive and you have retire now your children are eligible for social security. >> i have three children under the age of 18 and what i learned through this short interview i had with the social security administration, they would be eligible until they reach the age of 18 or finish high school . so when i added all of that up. it comes up to $70,000 that

three of them will get paid over the next few years. $615 a month for each of them on top of what i get in social security. >> steve: and on top of that, apparently yourr former wife would be eligible for social security benefits on your account as well if he selected to do that, too, right? >> that's correct. if you are married 10 years or more, the former spouse is eligible for benefits. i don't know what it adds up to . in the scheme of things. cent or 200,000 is a drop in a bucket but there is a lot of people out there collecting the benefits. >> steve: you said in the daily caller it might be $100 a month but turbs out $600 a month. which is extraordinary. you wrote that there is a great big gravy train out there that a lot of people

don't know about? >> that's right. my little bit of it doesn't register at the federal budget. but i think it is systematic of what is wrong with social security and entitlement programs. a lot of people are getting the benefits and that has to be contributing to bankrupting the system. >> steve: you paid and you are ened to the mon yewe wish you the best in your retirement. jim, read his pieces in the daily caller from time to time. >> thank you for having me. >> steve: what do you think about that. kids, too, who knew? and next up hollywood star suffers a stroke and is just 26 years old. you will find out in a moment how it happens. one thing in common. do you know what it is?

and will president obama suffer the same fate? details straight ahead. ♪ ♪ try running four.ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately we've got ink.

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>> brian: headlines coming your way. former new york city mayor koch in the hospital. he is treated for a respiratory infection. second time he was hospitalized in the last three months. house votes on restoring lifetime protection for former president. they limit it to 10 years. the push because of national security concerns and former

presidents taking on more active roles. gretchen? >> gretchen: thank you, brian. they were some of the most popular presidents in u.s. history and all elected to a second term. but it couldn't save them from the dreaded second term curse. it dated back to 1936 when president roosevelt won 46 out of 48 states. he used those results in an attempt to shake up the supreme court and that tarnished his reputation. fast forward to 1984. president reagan's economic recovery turned 49 of the 50 states red. the inran contraservice surface americans didn't like being kept in the dark . then the scandal impossible to forget. >> i want you to listen to me. i will say it again. i did not have sexual

relations with that woman: >> gretchen: nick is a presidential historian and author of the book presidential leadership. decisions that changed the nation and he's my guest this morning. >> morning, gretchen. >> gretchen: looking back in history president obama is now reelected to the second term. what do we suspect about the curse. >> it is an interesting topic it is difficult . going all the way back to wilson and league of nation . fdr and truman got run out of office . then president clintonon and monica . there is clearly an issue there. president obama understands it, but that is not going to temper him from doing big thengs. if he will accomplish anything. it is typically in the first year of the second term. after that it is down hill.

>> gretchen: there are white house leaks earlier this week that the president may be willing to go off of the fiscal cliff . so would that be something that would factor in to trying to make progress in the first year of the term? >> yeah, that is a big gammle. it is being. either it is going to work and the republicans are going to come back and negotiate with him. or set us off in another recession and derail the second term before it starts. the president is taking a gammle there. it is posturing now. that is a big issue. either he will get entitlement reform and fiscal cliff done or go off of the tracks and he might not recover from it. >> gretchen: there is another scandal that happened before the election and still out there with a lot of unanswered questions. i am talking about benghazi, libya where four americans were murdered. news that the president may

nominate united states un ambassador susan rice to secretary of state. how do you think it will play out? >> nomination fights to begin a second term is not a good thing. fdr needed senate approval and that derailed his first. president bush had the fight with john tower in the first term. not a great way to start it. foreign policy is usually the time presidents get tripped up. it happened with truman and rgan and bush in iraq. foreign policy surprises can derail a second term. the president will have to be careful of benghazi. >> gretchen: you would think if they were concerned about legacy they would do things they know they can control. nick, thank you for your thoughts. >> thank you. >> gretchen: she should have

died, the cheerleader who fell 40 feet from a window . he used the gun to save his boss. how was he rewarded? he was fired. happy birthday to johnnie resneck of the goo-goo dolls. he's 47. ♪ ♪

♪ >> now that the election is over i am getting the impression that president obama is getting a little cocky. >> working to get public support for the tax and spending proposal. president obama answered questions on twitter. how will you stop us from going over the fiscal cliff and will it involve significant deficit reduction. the president said i thought twitter was supposed to be fun. where are all of the crazy video. twitter boring. >> gretchen: it is an interesting concept instead of

spending time twittering why not go and lead the discussion between the parties. >> steve: or the president went golfing three or four times . it would be great if he went golfing with john boehner. >> gretchen: as hong as they don't ask. here are the headlines. a scare for franky muniz who rose to fame for malkare olm in the middle. >> it is the video . desense -- desensitized to violence. how many have you had. >> gretchen: the 26 year old recovering after suffering from a min i stroke. they are awaiting results. they noticed that nuniz had trouble understanding word and speaking. >> brian: he has to take better care of himself. >> steve: meanwhile, a mother

could face crimminal charges if she doesn't bring her daughter back to the hospital. cops are searching for 11 year old emily who suffers from leukemia. her mom removed her iv and snuck her out of the arizona and took off to who knows where. doctors say emily is at riskk of infection and could die within days. >> brian: a cheerleader making a recovery after falling five stories . back in october. page rocky was at a party, ridiculous in a way . unbelievably good and fell 39 feet out of a apartment window. she had brain damage and now she's in rehappen and walk talking again and thankful for the outpouring of support. >> i needed every single person that rallied behind me and they pushed me through it

. they are the reason i am here and okay. >> brian: her goal is to get back to school and keep working toward a career in the medical field. >> gretchen: we hope she can do that. >> steve: and take a look at the weather and find out where it is raining on the wednesday. is it wet yet? wet all the way northeast new england to the chesapeak and the peid mont and storms in the gulf coast. it continues to rain in northern california. it has been a soaker out there. central plain states will be nice and sunshiney today . chilly in rapid city . 35 in kansas city . 29 below freezing in chicago. 40s and 50s in the northeast and midatlantic . 60s on the gulf coast. daytime highs will warm up beautifully. temperatures in the 70s as will be the case in the gulf

coast . 80s on the gulf coast of florida . 60s in the midatlantic and cooler today in new york than yesterday . 54 should be the daytime high. time now mr. kilmeade for something else. ♪ >> brian: disturbing new details in the murder-suicide withble cher. he kissed the forecasandra perkins after shooting her nine times and apologized to her mother for carrying out the horrifying crime and he eventually killed himself. he is the head of the class. mcilroy named the pga player of the year for 2012. he is the youngest player since the age of 21. and he may play for game green but tim tebow call has a heart

of gold . he called two teens that in a car crash. they launched a campaign on twitter to cheer them up. olympics wimer misty franklin reached out and tim reached out and contacted them this he doesn't know if he will start this week. but he was there for the kids. >> gretchen: let's tell you about a crazy story where there is a autozone, the name ce who works there. there was a robbery that happens. an armed robber comes in and he comes to the defense of one of his co-workers and for fighting off that armed robber. we heard these stories before. i would like to get to the bottom why it is the end result. the guy who comes to the aid to help gets fired. >> brian: the place in york county, virginia. when this fake beard bandit

who hit 30 different stores. devon came in the front entrance and he used his own gun to stop the guy and arrest this guy. >> steve: he left the store and went back and got the gun and he was fired two days later. autozone has zero tolerance policy for weapons. here he is talking about why he got canned. >> they fired me because i reentered the store with my personal weapon. they have a wrero tolerance policy against employees have weapons in the store, and yeah, they basically had a problem with me, you know, coming in with my weapon and i guess saving him. he was very grateful that i was able to make it to my vehicle and grab my own weapon. they are my friends, you know

. i look at them as family. >> gretchen: what an amazing gesture he saves a guy's life. he saves a guy's life and now out of a job rightt before christmas time. i understand the policiless in place. but usually have to be exceptions to the rule and it doesn't mean it is happening every week or arm would robber will come in and employees happen to have a gun in the car and happen to save somebody's life. you have to look at the instances in and of themselves. >> steve: there are different social media site sprout up. facebook boycott autozone in support of him. he probably won't do it again . how about rehiring him . asking autozone to apologize to devon for firing him. >> brian: maybe sit him out the day and parade the next? i understand there are

policies. my goodness. you are being robbed and he's robbbed 30 of the stores. he will robe another 30 the fake beard bandit. >> steve: i am sure it has to do with liability. if a employee shoots the guy and then that guys family and heirs would own autozone. >> brian: you can't shoot a bandit anymore. >> steve: he would be bringing the gun in from outside. i get the legalize but it is freaky. >> brian: i sense they need to get on this. >> gretchen: coming up on the show. best way to getep better teacher. take a teacher bar exam. one veteran teacher said nope. her interesting take next. >> brian: he's one of america's favorite coaches and his career almost ended early. he will reveal something for the first time that everyone needs to hear.

coach k's here to motivate you in just a moment. ♪ you won't take my life.

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>> >> brian: he dreamed of blowing up 10 synagogues in new york city. he will now spend 10 years behind bars and then deported. he got the sentence in exchange for pleading guilty. he could have gotten 32 years or if they asked me to be on the jury . it is that time of year again, the crib making its annual come back. of applause in the control room. it returns on december 17th.

as long as the mcrib is out we are happy. steve smile. >> steve: i love the mcrib. put it in my day planner. should teachers have to pass a test before teaching her children. >> gretchen: the american federation of teacher's union is proposing a bar exam to weed out bad apples. will it work or just tryingo cover up other stuff. a elderly teacher resigned from the union years ago in florida. good morning. >> gretchen: why did you resign from the union? >> i left the union because i saw no purpose in belonging to it and i was broke, i was a teacher and i needed money. >> steve: and you live in florida, you don't have to belong to the union. >> exactly. >> steve: what do you make of the proposal by the american federation of teachers. they will have a high standard like a bar exam for teachers

because it is hard to be a lawyer and hard to become a teacher, right? >> right. [laughing] i don't buy it. every state already has in place certification tests that people take. i believe that their intention to make the standards more rigorous. i fully support and i think you node the best of the best teaching the students. but at the same time. you continue to demand higher and higher quality and somebody has to pay for it. >> gretchen: don't you think it could be the teacher unions have come under fire because of the documentaries like waiting for super man and other movies that came out and said it is because of the unions potentially that kids are under served in our public schools, because the demands of the teacher's unionn benefited the teachers rather than the kids. could it be that this type of bar exam is the way the union

is trying to . good teachers and so they stop talking about the bad teachers? >> sure. that is deviating away from what the real problems in education are. if you know that finland has the number one school system in the world and part of that process is making the standards so rigorous and they only the best of the best and same time they pay significantly more for teachers and once they earned that title. they earned complete autonomy over the class roommate. part of the problem we have so much regulation and mandates and we are dictated to how to teach in our classrooms. what is the point in making standards when we don't have the option to use professional judgment as it am is. >> steve: thank you very much for joining us on the wednesday morning from beautiful orlando, florida. thank you.

>> thank you for having me. >> gretchen: we have a hypochrissy alert. remember michael moor's latest ovie bashing tax rate breaks. >> steve: and a big secret and writing a letter to his younger self as a warning for others not to do the same thing. coach k will reveal that letter with brian next on "fox and friends" ♪ ♪ than that though, there's a kick to it. wahlalalalallala! smooth, but crisp. it's kind of like drinking a food that's a drink, or a drink that's a food, woooooh! [ male announcer ] taste it and describe the indescribable.

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>> brian: coach k. mike is one of the best coaches of all time . almostt had to leave his jobb so much after being diagnosed with ostoe arthritis. coach, your drive and determination to overcome almost undid you how? >> you start thinking you can live with pain and you are super man and i had immense groin pain. it is over 14 years ago . i started a season and said i can handle it and instead of fighting my opponent you fight pain every day and then you deteriorate. i couldn't coach. i had to sit in a chair in practice and by the end of the season i was dead and i got to get this thing done. i had this hip on and left one

done . this one 10 years ago. i wasn't going to go through the darn pain. >> brian: you wrote a letter to younger coach mike. you hurt yourself and hurt your performance. you believe your team would have won a championship. this is the except that is comingut. >> sure, yeah. dear mike, what is going on with you, with this pain that you are feeling? you know that that that pain that is bothering you at night. you don't understand why it is there. but you are not worried. you learned to work through obstacils and tolerate discomfort . most of the time it is a strength for a cadet and officer and coach. but sometimes your strength turns out to be a weakness and that was the truth .

i ended up fighting my opponent. i have fought pain and now i don't fight pain. >> brian: your family paid the price. you don't have the same energy and don't do the demonstration . you are trying to get the message to the people who are out there. it takes a real man who knows when to get the operation. coach ass you know in america, coach team usa and two titans in the respected conferences and world, i think you are uniquely qualified to give america a pep talk. are you ready. coaching skills for the hard life. your teams have low confidence. america right now consumer confidence is what do you say to the american people. >> believe in one another. you know, like we are the best country, start talking like we are the best country and quit

all of the negative stuff . you start talking positively you start going in a positive direction. >> brian: you nailed it you do it on a regular basis with duke as outstantedingly freshman come in . now in america. america is the country . how do you stay on top as a american and motivate knowing that everyone want to take you down? >> it is a great place to be in. you want a target on your back and that means you are good. if you are worrying about somebody chages you instead of you chasing what you are chasing, you are not worthy of having the target on the back. >> brian: coach k, you are good. no wonder you won back to back titles and your team is undefeated now. congratulation oz putting this together. your message is worthy. had known then.com. read the coach's letter. >> thank you very much.

>> brian: stay out of the trouble in new york. >> i have a big escort to make sure i don't deviate. >> brian: get in trouble throw my name around. >> that might get me in trouble. >> brian: remember michael moor's latest movie bashing tax breakings. taxpayers pated for the film . what you missed from the victoria secret fashion show . those are beautiful wings. ♪ [ malennouncer ] it's tt time of year again. time for citi price rewind. because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing.

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gives you a low $18.50 monthly plan premium... and select generic hypertension drugs available for only a penny... so you can focus on what really matters. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. >> gretchen: good morning, everybody. today is wednesday. december 5, 2012. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks for sharing part of it with us. remember these guys? , congressman paul ryan and marco rubio stepping back in the spotlight to take off on the fiscal cliff. hear their plan to save america. >> brian: congressional bank committee is in charge of our economic policy, defense production. guess who is taking over? a woman named one of the most corrupt members of congress. good job, guys. >> steve: is that a problem?

>> brian: i'm not sure. >> steve: someone should sound the hypocrisy alert. do we have one? michael moore's latest movie, bashing tax breaks paid for in part by tax breaks. how delicious is that? "fox & friends" hour two for wednesday starts right now. >> brian, have a wonderful day. >> gretchen: wouldn't it be great for every man to wake up to a super model greeting them like that? >> brian: right. >> gretchen: finally, knew unanimous response from all the men on our crew who run our wonderful cameras. >> brian: i believe all this crew does wake up with a super model every day, their wives. >> steve: absolutely. >> gretchen: except for ted, who is not married. >> steve: not yet. >> brian: he just has a different super model. >> gretchen: we do try and set him up with all the model when

is they come on the show. >> brian: ted does his own work, thank you. >> gretchen: i tried to help him. >> brian: how would you like to read my prompter? that's his best line. >> steve: they say no deal. it's what we refer to as a ted marital cliff. >> gretchen: maybe today he'll have some luck with petra. >> brian: she's seeing somebody, i think. >> steve: she is. >> gretchen: you never know. she's not married. >> steve: plus, ken james has a great new book out. you know all the things your parents told you growing up. >> brian: don't run with scissors. >> steve: if you swallow your gum, it will sit there for seven years. are they true? he tells you the truth behind it. ken jennings, jeopardy guy coming up right here this hour. >> gretchen: i always run with scissors to help you cut your phone out of your suit jacket. >> brian: tails good to have joel or scissors with you. joel has scissors. >> steve: they need big scissors

in washington, d.c. because they're talking about doing some cutting, at least the republicans are. >> gretchen: they are? >> steve: the republicans are. the democrats, they're just talking about increasing taxes on the top 2%. the president of the united states responding yesterday to the republicans' deal, where they would raise $800 billion, which is a lot of money, by closing loopholes and stuff like that. the president said sorry, folks. it's just not enough because you got to raise taxes on the top 2%. you've got to raise the rates. not just revenue. >> brian: the president sat down yesterday and indicated he will not even have a follow-up conversation with speaker boehner unless the republicans agree to raise the top rate on the tax rate electric 35 to -- from 35 to 39. there is an indication perhaps he would go somewhere in between. but to say with seven working days left and 27 total days until we go off the fiscal cliff, that's an interesting posture to take, so to speak.

>> gretchen: some people in negotiations say seven days it a life -- is a lifetime. usually deals happen at the last minute. but be that as it may, the idea -- what he's doing now is he's living up to his campaign promise. one of the reasons he won this reelection, people would say, is because he talked a lot about this. he talked about let's tax the rich. let's have them pay their fair share, even though a lot of people would argue they are paying their fair share. but it appears to have worked. that's why he's stick to go this line of the some people disagree. congressman paul ryan and marco rubio said this. >> an election has come and gone. the people have made their choice. the policy makers still have a duty to choose between ideas that work and those that don't. when one economic policy after another has failed our working families, it's no answer to simply express compassion for them or to create more

government programs that offer promise but don't perform. instead we must come together and advance new strategies for lifting people out of poverty. >> our complicated and uncertain tax code is also hindering the creation of middle class jobs. you can't open or grow a business if your taxes are too high or too uncertain. that's why i personally oppose the president's plan to raise taxes. [ applause ] this isn't about a pledge. it isn't about protecting millionaires and billionaires. for me, it's about the fact that tax increases he wants would fail to make even a small dent in the debt, but it would hurt middle class businesses and the people who work for them. >> steve: the president wants to raise the top tax rate for the biggest earners in our country up to bill clinton levels. interesting, on the op ed page of investors business daily today, what they talk about is because the president loves the bill clinton era, forget about

the tax rates. how about bringing spending in line with what it was when bill clinton was president of the united states? the last year of the clinton presidency, government expenditures were 18% of gdp. now over the last four years, they've averaged about 25%. so idb says adopt the spending levels and restrain the cost, mr. president. not the tax rates. cut the spending, not the -- >> gretchen: it's kind of like that duh sound on the simpson show. people know this. people know this is what it's going to come down to yet it's this posturing. now headlines, chaos in cairo. president morsi returning to his palace overnight. he took off amid violent protests between police and protests, 100,000. they're outraged over morsi expanding his powers.

hello, you elected him -- but the muslim brotherhood calling for its own protests over alleged abuses by the opposition. several tv stations in egypt going back to protest the constitution drafted by islamists. new chilling surveillance video showing the moment when a barista came face-to-face with her killer. you can see 18-year-old samantha make the coffee and then raise her hands as if she's being held up. he makes her turn off the lights and climb through a window before tying her hands behind her back, chilling. the f.b.i. says he then sexually assaulted and he killed her. he's confessed to her murder and as many as seven others before he committed suicide in jail over the last few days. it was touted as a dream. but another nightmare for the future of flight, the boeing airliner forced to make another emergency landing. a mechanical problem forced the pilot to land in new orleans much the latest problem

happening on the same day regulators ordered inspections for the entire fleet of 787 jets for a possible fuel line problem. it's the moment brian has been waiting for. angel aless sandra kicking off the victoria secret fashion show in a $2.5 million bra. ♪ >> gretchen: the models strutted their stuff on the runway while rihanna gave the musical background. >> steve: where are her wings? >> gretchen: bruno mars and justin bieber also performed. looks kind of nice. i saw the american flag in there. nice to know that somebody is patriotic. >> steve: sure. big show last night on cbs.

meanwhile, at the end of this oh, bonnie frank who represent add congressional district in the boston area will retire. he headed up the financial services committee in the congress, house of representatives. you know who will take his place? looks like it will be maxine waters, which is curious because she's had a series of ethical lapses and, in fact, she is the three-time recipient of the award, one of the 15 most corrupt members of congress. terrific. >> gretchen: okay. so is this a position where you actually is to -- is it just a nominated position or do you have to be approved? >> steve: i think you're appointed. >> brian: by your party. >> gretchen: nobody else has to vote. >> brian: she'll bel ranking member. >> gretchen: so it's pretty much a done deal? >> steve: yeah. the good news is she was recently cleared of all allegations that she steered bailout money to a bank that her husband had stock in. so terrific. >> gretchen: here is a hypocrisy

alert. michael moore, he's the maker of a lot of different films. he got over $840,000 in taxpayer funded incentives to make his movie. but guess who it was about. it was about opposing taxpayer funded incentive for businesses. so some people might find that hypocritical. >> steve: he made a documentary called "capitalism". i get the idea of tax credits for companies that create jobs. how many jobs do you think this michael moore movie created. >> brian: you see his movies really, since the bush one, have really tanked since, have not gotten the traction and he's pretty much disappeared, which i think is a good thing. >> steve: you think so? anyway, speaking of disappeared, whole bunch of michigan's money, $841,145 in taxpayer funded incentives disappeared into the making of that fine motion picture. >> gretchen: coming up, do you

remember oliver twist? >> i need more. >> gretchen: some people are asking if democrats are taking the oliver approach to solving our financial problem. stuart varney here to put it in perspective. >> steve: stu. >> brian: didn't realize he was in the monitor. are you smarter than ken jennings? he's here to put you to the test, all thanks to his son. >> we have good news and we have bad news. first the bad news, it's just 28 days until the fiscal cliff deadline. the good news, only 17 days 'til the mayans say we're all going to die! who cares about the fiscal cliff? exactly !

>> steve: remember oliver twist. >> please sir, i need some more. >> steve: i do, too. well, it does seem like democrats are taking the oliver twist approach to solving the nation's financial problems. take a look at this. >> asking the wealthiest americans to pay a little more. >> asking the wealthiest americans to contribute a little bit more. >> the wealthy ought to pay a little bit more. >> the wealthy ought to pay more. >> the richest of the rich will have to pay more to solve the financial problems of this country. >> steve: i notice a trend. the problem is, they were just asking for a little bit more, those making over $250,000 a year. they're going to be hit with new taxes at the beginning of the year, regardless of whether or not a deal is reached on the so-called fiscal cliff. stuart varney has got the bad news and it's in small print of the health care reform. >> it is. under obamacare. everybody is looking at the

fiscal cliff, tax the rich more for the fiscal. okay. we've got that. but we are definitely going to tax the rich just a little bit more come january 1 to pay for obamacare, specifically taxes on capital gains, dividends going up to just a little bit more, just a little bit more on january 1, and also a little bit more on income of those people making more than $200,000 a year. so we have defined rich down to $200,000 a year. it was a lot higher than that, but guaranteed january 1, a little bit more for obamacare. >> steve: when you say a little bit more, you mean like 3 or 4%, which adds up. >> it does. it's 3.8% extra as a capital gains tax. >> steve: that's a done deal. that's baked into the health care reform? >> that's it. there is no discussion about it. that was passed two years ago. this is going to happen. then you've got maybe a little bit more on income and other forms of income if we approach

this fiscal cliff and the president gets his way. he is digging in his heels on higher tax rates on upper income earners. that will be a little bit more from those people. >> steve: i don't know if you were listening, i know you were in the hall, but a moment ago i mentioned the fact that in investors business daily today, they talk about the president is pushing to get things toward the bill clinton tax rate. he loves the bill clinton era, how about returning to bill clinton era spending in proportion? >> wouldn't that be nice? how about return to the bill clinton era on capital gains rates? it was bill clinton who pushed it down. now president obama is pushing it way up. yet it would be nice to return to the basis of bill clinton, but that's not what we're doing. we're taking a little bit more here, a little bit more there, a little bit more over there. all to pay for all of this wonderful spending that the president wants. >> steve: maybe in four years when hillary runs for president. you have got to figure that's going to happen. >> i wonder what's going to happen to the economy.

it's weak now, you raise taxes a little bit more, what happens to the economy? >> steve: so many people have been forecasting that the president does raise rates, couple of years ago, he said during a recession, that's the worst time to jack up rates. now we're not technically in a recession, but we're in a very soft edge. >> watch out, steve, 'cause here it comes, a little bit more. >> steve: thank you very much. stuart varney doesn't do show tunes, but does talk about the news of the day and politics and everything over on fox business exactly two hours and two minutes from right now. thank you. >> thank you. >> steve: down we go to the control room. gretchen. >> gretchen: next up, the ultimate whiz kid. he has quiz for the rest of us. does like chicken soup really chase away a cold? ken jennings, the jeopardy champ here coming up next. are there other questions, too, that are tough? >> i can answer whatever you want. >> gretchen: i'm sure you can. first, police want phone companies to save your text

messages for two years. is that legal? >> it was 20 years ago yesterday, the very first text message was sent. 20 years ago, was september bay -- sent by a 22-year-old engineer who texted the words merry christmas before going over a cliff in an embankment ♪ the weather outside is frightful ♪ ♪ but the fire is so delightful ♪ nothing melts away the cold like a hot, delicious bowl of chicken noodle soup from campbell's. ♪ let it snow, let it snow

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>> gretchen: time to do math. news by the numbers. 1519, that's how many chevy volts were sold last month. that's about half the amount from october in what has been a continual slide in the sales of the government subsidized car. next, two years. that's how long cell phone

carrier also keep your private text messages if authorities get their way. they say it helps in criminal investigations. and a third, that's how many women account for america's doctors and lawyers. a huge increase from a generation ago when less than 10% of lawyers and 5% of doctors were women. congratulations. >> brian: he was once the reining champion of "jeopardy". topping rivals 74 times. and walking away with record winning. >> what's america the beautiful? what, ken. >> who are the power rangers. >> ken? >> you risked 5800. 29,000 is what you get and brings your total to $2,520,700. >> steve: if i was ever on a game show, he'd be my phone a friend. he's not returning my phone calls until today. since his successful run on jeopardy, ken has become the

best selling author of not one, not two, but three books. in his latest, he challenges the notion that mom and dad know best by dissecting common myths. he joins us live. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> steve: i guess you have your son, dylan, and a purple tootsie pop to thank for this book? >> he was tearing around the kitchen with a lollipop in his mouth, i was like, you're going to fall and push into your brain or something. i had this vague idea. >> steve: you sounded like your mother. >> i'm turning into my mother. >> gretchen: that's not true? >> he asked me that? really. i said i have no idea, i'm just par reporting that back to my kid. >> brian: you parrot that out. it's an unbelievable book, to correct everything you're trying to get across to your kids. here are some of the things. let's talk some facts. >> steve: he's going to quiz us.

that's true. these are some of the topics out of the wouldn't stay away from the christmas poinsettia because the leaves are poisonous. >> steve: that is false. explain why. >> it's just an accident that people assume poinsettias are poisonous. a kid ate one once and they assumed he had a problem. >> gretchen: what about for dogs? >> it's okay, 'cause people are worried about that. dogs who have to eat a ton. they fed pounds to rats. >> gretchen: second one? >> i'll bring you chicken soup u will feel better. >> gretchen: false. >> brian: i say it's true because you were on radio yesterday. >> gretchen: cheater! >> that is true. chicken soup does tend to do better for colds than other hot liquids. >> steve: i was going to say, coffee? >> it will stunt your growth, you ever hear that? >> gretchen: now i know why i'm short. [ laughter ] >> that coffee -- it's fall.

coffee or caffeine doesn't do a thing for kids -- it will make them into nuts. but it won't affect their growth. >> brian: number 4, sir? >> eat your crust, that's where the vitamins are. >> steve: probably would be maybe a higher concentration of it? >> gretchen: false. >> false. pretty much irrelevant. >> gretchen: now, this one is going to be an interesting one. give it a shot. >> don't suck your thumb. that's bad for you. >> gretchen: it's bad for your teeth. >> exactly right. it's bad for your bite. for a long time, psychiatrists thought let them suck their thumbs. but dentists won. >> no soda. the sugar makes you hyper. >> steve: no, false. >> anyone going to stick up? >> gretchen: true. >> brian: i say no soda. >> no soda might be a good idea 'cause sugar is not good for kids, but not connected to hyperactivity. i think parents are going to be mad at me for this one.

>> brian: i like toned the way we ended yesterday, that is here is the big picture. you believe these things like google and all these devices are hurting us because we don't look things up anymore. all of two do, it hurts our memory because all of two do is google it. >> i do worry about that. we don't know facts anymore because we think, i'll look it up if i need that. then we never do. >> brian: gps also. we don't know the roads anymore because we have somebody talk to us. >> steve: i can't tell you how many times we played trivial pursuit at christmas time. i think i'm going to take this home and quiz my family. >> steve: my son read it and tells my wife, no, no. it's in dad's book. i'm fine. >> steve: because i said so, ken, thank you very much. congratulations on a great book. >> gretchen: love the idea. coming up next on "fox & friends," a custody bat this bae that will make your blood boil.

losing his child to a wife with a rap sheet. question get the child back. >> steve: can you hear me now? verizon might be able to hear you. they want the right to monitor your phone conversations. >> brian: welcome to my world, verizon. you're going to want out. >> steve: brian, it's your wife i love the holidays.

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>> william and kate having a baby. you know what would be funny? >> everyone out there find it amusing. >> mommy, daddy. i like to get down and dirty gangam style. >> steve: honey boo boo! >> gretchen: she would be evicted from the royal family. i have a feeling. >> brian: did you hear about her? she's part of barbara walters' most popular people. >> steve: a lot of people don't know about her. discover what a couple gallons of mountain dew will do to you.

>> gretchen: maybe she'll be times person of the year. >> brian: maybe she's a finalist. >> steve: that would be a boo boo. something not so funny happened at the hospital where kate middleton is beingated. hoaxers called precontinueding to be the king and queen and were given kate's personal information. sky news reporter joins us live from london. paul? >> good afternoon. prince william arrived here around 20 minutes or so. no sign from him as to whether he is annoyed about this hoax phone call that was made from an australian radio station. the two little known hosts posing as the queen and prince charles trying to mock their accents. it would almost be laughable if it wasn't true. and they phoned directly into the hospital itself, spoke to the main switch board. they were then transferred onto

the ward itself and spoke to the nurse on duty. during that conversation as they posed as the queen and prince charles, they managed to get some pretty sensitive information about how kate's doing and how she's recovering from acute morning sickness. now, obviously the hospital is outraged by this. i'll read awe brief clip from a statement from the chief executive. he says that this was a foolish prank and we all deplore what happened. we take potential confidentiality extremely seriously and reviewing our telephone protocol. so a bit of scandal surrounding the duchess of cambridge's stay here at the hospital and i think it may well be sort of setting the tone potentially for the next eight to ten months. >> steve: thank you very much. those australians. those pranksters. >> brian: they said the english accent was so bad, it was comical. >> steve: next thing you know, arnold schwarzenegger is going to try calling them. >> brian: right.

>> gretchen: you would think the english would understand the australian accent as not being the real english accent. for us it's kind of hard to tell the difference. but if you speak to someone british, they say come on, you know it immediately. >> steve: i bet the hospital won't do that again. >> gretchen: brian, you ready to do some headlines? >> brian: okay. let's go to headlines now. the road to fame on the hit show "malcolm in the middle," you remember this show? >> well, we finished the 45th and final video of the series. we are officially desensitized to violence. how many have you had? >> brian: just 26 years old, frankie nunez revealing he had a mini stroke. doctors aren't sure why this happened. they're waiting on test results. she had trouble speaking. people had trouble understanding him. they went to a doctor. he also says what's to take better care of himself.

>> steve: they can hear you now. verizon wants to listen in on your conversations. the company filing a patent for ads that collect information from infrared cameras. they also want a patent for a microphone that co-detective the amount -- detect the amount of people and types of conversations happening in customers' living rooms. i wonder if that's when they're on the phone. technology is not the first of its kind. comcast patented similar technology in 2008. can you hear me now? apparently yes. >> gretchen: sorry, charlie. a church canceling performances of a charlie brown christmas because, did you know it's too religious? >> i guess i really don't know what christmas is all about. >> isn't there anyone who knows what christmas is all about? >> gretchen: well, some elementary school students were supposed to see the christmas classic at a church in little rock, arkansas, but an atheist group threatened to sue the school district because of the play's religious content. the church tells fox news it

canceled the show so the district wouldn't get in trouble. you see, this is what happens, folks. cause schools can't afford these lawsuits. but they invited all the students to see a weekend performance instead. i don't remember anything religious about that show whatsoever. what could it possibly be? >> they do sing "hark the herald angels sing." >> gretchen: gosh, that's so horrible. >> brian: what did dinus do again? >> gretchen: he carried a blanket. >> steve: they also quote the bible. >> brian: an officer risks his own life to save a dog. he ran out on the ice while chasing ducks. his owner said the dog looked down and just froze, realizing where he was. the sheriff's department came out and went on the ice to coax the dog back. >> gretchen: i used to have a jack russell. they're sweet, sweet pups. >> steve: what was his name? >> gretchen: spike. >> steve: there you go. >> brian: spike would never have done that. not the spike i know. >> gretchen: unfortunately he got run over. >> brian: how old was he? >> gretchen: one. >> brian: did the guy stop?

>> gretchen: it was very, very sad. let's go to weather. >> brian: all right. >> steve: i'm too depressed. >> brian: right. >> steve: let's take a look at where it's raining today. as you can see, we got rain in the northeast down through the mid atlantic and the gulf coast and the pacific coast as well, another soaker in northern california. come on over. meanwhile, real cold up in the northern plains around the great lakes, 28 now in chicago. 30s in the mid plains states. 40s and 50s throughout the northeast and then 60s along the gulf coast. later today, on this wednesday, it's going to be a beautiful day in florida. look at that. tampa's daytime high on the west coast, looks like probably 80. going to be cooler here in new york city than we had yesterday. we were in the 60s. 54 the daytime high. 41 in chicago. if you're out in el paso, the daytime high will be 70. the same in dallas. that's your travel cast. >> brian: disturbing new details more thanking in the

murder-suicide involving jovan belcher. police say belcher actually kissed the forehead of cassandra perkins after shooting her nine times and apologized to his mother when was in the room for carrying out the horrific crime. and that's the latest on that story. let's move on to something else. he's the head of the class of this year. 23-year-old rory mcilroy named player of the year in 2012. he had four wins including the pga championship. he's the youngest winner since tiger woods did it in 1997. >> steve: it's a custody battle that's going to make your blood boil. a good father and u.s. soldier loses his little girl to an estranged wife with a rap sheet. can he make a case to get her back? heather joins us here on the curvy couch with a little discussion about what's going on. >> good morning to you. this is going before the u.s. supreme court later today to hear oral arguments. the outcome of this is likely to set precedent over basically how u.s. courts handle jurisdiction

over u.s. american citizens who have a child with a foreign national. so here is what happened in this case. there was a u.s. soldier who was stationed in germany. he had a little girl with a scottish citizen. while he was deployed to afghanistan, the mother brought the little girl up to scotland where she's from, as a lot of military families do. after his deployment was finished, he then moved to alabama, was stationed a the a base there and that's when the marriage fell apart. >> steve: expecting her to come live with him? >> the mother did come live with him as did the daughter, but the marriage fell apart. so the mom grabbed the little girl and headed back to scotland. that's when the u.s. courts really got involved. there was a lower u.s. court that ruled -- i think is what will surprise some folks -- that there is a treaty that the u.s. and the u.k. are a party to, along with a lot of other parties, call the international child abduction treaty. and that treaty is what was upheld by the lower courts in the united states. so the mother was able to keep

custody of the little girl. now the u.s. supreme court is hearing the case today and we'll see what happens. the effects of this, the impact of this will likely reach a lot of u.s. military. >> gretchen: recently in the news, there has been this american female actress who also had two children with a foreign national, i believe he was from france. >> right. >> gretchen: then he was able to take -- the judge in the u.s. ruled that he could take the children back to france and she has been trying to fight to get them back. >> exactly. and it's this treaty in the hague and it's meant to help prehave not parents from abducting children burks it seems like it's perhaps doing the opposite. >> steve: so the supreme court is not going to decide necessarily who the child lives with, but will it make any difference, the fact that in the introduction, it said that the mom had a rap sheet. >> yeah. that is exactly right. she had some domestic violence issues in 2010 and also some drunk driving issues or some alcohol-related legal problems as well. so that could play a factor.

but of two watch and see. by the way, let me read you a quote from the father's attorney. he says, quote, the miscarriage of justice comes to mind, his name is michael manly. the other side's position is that once a child leaves the boundaries of the united states, it is over. there is nothing you can do about it and that has terrifying consequence. >> gretchen: so many families will be affected 'cause tons of stories out there like this. >> steve: happenses are, you've got health insurance or 401(k). dave ramsey explains the four things you need to do before the end of this calendar year. >> gretchen: that's important. then do you think celebrities are overpaid? if not, this next story will definitely change your mind. who gets paid the most to do the least? some people might say all celebrities are overpaid. >> brian: that's important. i'm paying attention to that. first, the aflac question of the day, born on this day in 1932, this singer is known as the architect of rock'n'roll. who is he?

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through a preferred network pharmacy like walgreens -- where you'll find 8,000 convenient locations. best of all, this plan has the lowest part d premium in the united states -- only $15 a month. open enrollment ends december 7th. so call today or visit your local walgreens. >> brian: quick headlines. former new york city mayor ed koch in the hospital for the second time in three months. he's been treated for a respiratory infection. he turns 88 next week. he was once among box office's drawing. >> they changed the plans clam the plans have been changed! there is not supposed to be any right angles on this movie. >> brian: eddie murphy has being the honor of being the most overpaid actor, according to "forbes" magazine. katherine hagel came in second. reese witherspoon is third.

gretch? >> gretchen: i'm not sure what to do with my hands, but anyway. i'm going to be italian for a moment like brian and use them with the fiscal cliff fears looming and the possibility of your 401(k) taking a huge hit, it's time to get your financial house in order. joining me with his end of the year checklist is personal finance expert, dave ramsey. dave, good morning to you. >> good morning, merry christmas. >> gretchen: merry christmas. speaking of christmas, it's really important that people start thinking about these things before the end of the year because there could be a lot of change coming. correct? >> well, there could be. there is a storm abreuing, as they say. and one of the things we want you to do is want to you get ahead of your 401(k) and really know what your options are there, we want you to understand investments and just really kind of do a checklist all through your finances. you want to look at the health insurance issues and make sure if there is a time to sign up, a season to sign up with your company that you get that done. if you've met on the health insurance idea, if you have met your deductibles and you have some things you can do that are

voluntarily, like eyeglasses or dental or surgery at the end of the year, this would be the time to do get that done while you met the deductibles. >> gretchen: the other thing is the charitable giving. especially because i believe the charities are meeting with members of the white house, or at least on capitol hill because they're very concerned that this deduction is going to be going away for folks. so if people really, really, really want to give to the charities, they better do it in december. >> there is a really good chance next year that if the white house gets its way, you're going to lose a lot of your charitable deductions which is really sad. that means the only place to go for help is the government. that sounds like a plan. but bad idea. really bad idea because the charities are mainly supported, 88% of the money of charities comes from 5% of the income. that's the top 5% income earners. if they take that away, you're going to kick charities in the kneecap. look at the life insurance issues. make sure your family is taken

care of here at the end of the year. this is just your time to go through your personal financial checklist and go okay. the different things going on in my world what, have i got to do to be ready? >> gretchen: we're so busy with christmas and the new year and everything going on, it's really important to try and fit all of this in as well. let's get some e-mails from jason in philadelphia. he's the first to kick it off. my employer is stopping the match on our 401(k) next year. now what? where should i invest my money? >> a lot of employers are doing this because they're having to pay for things like obamacare. so they're going to pull back in other areas of voluntary benefits packages to meet the government's mandates. so what do you if you don't is a match on your 401(k), you're much better off mathematically to do a roth ira if you qualify in a good growth stock mutual fund. currently you can put up to $5,000 each into a roth ira if you make married filing jointly making less than $55,000. >> gretchen: there are no tax

consequences there, at least for a while. chris from los angeles has this e-mail. my wife and i are thinking about choosing a high deductible insurance plan this year. it would come with a flexible spending account. it's just the two of us. we think this would cut costs. what do you think? sometimes, dave, people do this because then their premium goes down, right? >> exactly. the higher the deductible on any kind of insurance, drops your premium. health insurance is a really good place to do that, as long as you have your emergency fund in place. the flexible spending account goes with your employee benefit package. that's a cafeteria plan. that means the company gives awe certain amount of money to spend on different benefits. you could spend it on things that the deductible doesn't cover and those kinds of things. but as long as you got an emergency fund, i really recommend raising your health insurance deductibles. >> gretchen: thanks so much for that great advice and getting us ready for the end of the year. we'll see you again next week. >> thanks. merry christmas. >> gretchen: merry christmas,

dave. have you ever lived with a complete slob? who is more nuts? the messy person or the clean and control freak? dr. keith ablow is answering your e-mails. first, this day in history on this date in 1978, is it chick or cheek? come on, guys? chic, they had the number one song "le freak" and it's a great one to work out to. i got it on my ipad and ipod ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] campbell's green bean casserole. it's amazing what soup can do

>> steve: answer to the aflac question of the day, little richard. the winner, katherine savage from san antonio, texas. congratulations. >> gretchen: are you normal or are you nuts? are you both? it's the question everyone asks

once in a while. it's a question we ask dr. keith ablow every week. joining us to anti-e-mails you sent to us, psychiatrist, dr. keith ablow. good morning to you, sir. >> good morning to you. >> gretchen: let's find out if somebody is normal or nuts today. here is the first e-mail. mom is disrespectful to husband. my mother is very disrespectful to my husband. she criticizes and mocks his looks, his job and his family. i try to stick up -- it's not funny, brian -- >> brian: i hate when my wife writes to the show. >> gretchen: i try to stick up for him, but i can tell he's hurt by her words. why does she do this? is she normal or nuts? >> listen, we reserve the term, nuts, for those who are just annoying, not the ones obviously struggling with illness. she's a 24 carat nut! bottom line is, she gives this woman a good clue. she's nice enough o do that. you can't be just your husband, ma'am, to whom your mother had a knee jerk negative reaction because she's probably resisted

anything you love 'cause she's after your personhood. so stand up for yourself. tell her to back off. >> steve: just like that. good luck. all right. keith, the next one is kind -- >> i said do it. they should do it. >> steve: the murphy brown syndrome. my husband fired four secretaries in the last year. each one seems like the perfect candidate, but he finds something wrong. then he complains he's stuck working without help but he fired them. nor or nuts? >> here is the thing, i had an employer once, married four times, getting married for the fifth time and he said here is the key to no one -- the first four, you swear it's them. yeah, the guy is crazy. right? he needs to stick with somebody 'cause it's not them. >> steve: nuts number two. >> gretchen: if off question, log on to our web site and e-mail dr. ablow your questions and he will answer them truthfully every week. always great to see you.

>> good to see you, too. be well, or call me. >> steve: indeed. straight ahead, george w. bush revealing what he calls the real key to our recovery. guess what in both parties have it wrong. the president's former press secretary dana perino, that gal, joins us live. stick around ♪ the weather outside is frightful ♪

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>> gretchen: good morning, everybody. it's wednesday, december 5, 2012. i'm gretchen carlson. i hope you're going to have a fantastic day. 27 days left, that's all america has until it falls off the so-called fiscal cliff. now the president's telling congress that his plan to deal with the deficit is a wait until next year approach. dana perino who used to work in the white house, here to weigh in on that one. >> steve: meanwhile, he would wt with republicans, but he'll work with the liberal media. he extends extra special invitations to the white house to talk taxes and guess who was

on that invite list. >> brian: she used to be my gal pal. then along came sean penn and there is something between us. she is here today and we are going to do our best to find out what she's been up to in the interim. fox friends friends starts right now. >> good morning, brian. >> brian: petra will be here. everyone remembers their first super model guest. >> steve: sure. >> gretchen: i'm glad you put guest at the educational background of that. >> steve: ten years ago, she was on the show a lot. >> brian: she was like a regular. >> steve: she got too big for us. >> brian: she was on more than stuart varney. she would do a lot of the financial updates. >> steve: she's back today and she's got a great cause she's going to talk about. good to have her back. >> brian: she was in the tsunami, as we all know, and

survived it. >> gretchen: her fiance died and she including to a tree for eight hours and she created a charity that she did very soon after that helps now those people still suffering over in thailand. in the meantime, let's get to your headlines because we begin with chaos in cairo, egypt. president mohammed morsi returning to his palace overnight. so why did he have to leave? well, he had to take off amid violent protests between more than 100,000 protesters. now they're outraged over him extending his powers. they voted him in, though. the muslim brotherhood calling for its own protests over alleged abuses by the opposition. several tv stations in egypt going black to protest the constitution drafted by islamists. doesn't sound like it's too peaceful there right now. a prank happening at the hospital where kate middleton is staying. two australian dj's called pretending to be the king and

queen of england. the duchess' nurse apparently fooled over the phone and gave them kate's personal information. the hospital now says it deeply regrets the incident. the mom to be still receiving treatment for severe morning sickness and will remain there for the next several days. wonder what's going to happen to that nurse who gave out info. millionaire john mcafee on the run from belize turning up in guatemala. he's trying to get asylum. he's wanted for questioning in the murder of his neighbor. but he claims if he goes in for questioning, he'll be killed. >> police do not is a good track record at providing safety when they ask to question you. i felt more secure crossing the country into a company that had laws that were backed by the justice system. >> gretchen: he says he's meeting with guatemalan authorities today and if it goes well, he'll hold a press

conference later on. a rare public speech by former president george w. bush praising the virtues of immigration. >> america is a nation of immigrants. immigrants have helped build the country that we have become and immigrants can help build a dynamic tomorrow. as our nation debates the proper course of action regarding immigration, i hope we do so with a benevolent spirit and keep in mind the contribution of immigrants. >> gretchen: interesting. so he gave this speech at a conference focusing on immigration and economic growth which his institute co-sponsored. who better to respond to that than his former press secretary, dana perino. what did you make of his speech? >> i thought it was really good. one of the issues that i worked on when i was the deputy to tony snow was immigration reform in 2007. there was a big push that president bush had. he tried to get this bill done. i remember we used to ask tony snow to go out and -- we would make him go on tv, talk radio,

anything 'cause he was such a good communicator on that issue. president bush gave the first domestic policy address from the oval office in may of 2007 and it was on immigration. i'm not surprised that he's doing this now. i'm glad that he is. it's the george w. bush institute plus the dallas federal reserve bank talking about immigration from an economic growth standpoint. but you heard his words, his language isn't one that reminds people that we can have laws, but we can also do this in a smart benevolent way. do i hope he play has good role in the upcoming debate. >> brian: the house is passing their own immigration plan. they're looking to alter green cards evaluations and the visa process. so this is a timely situation. i believe right now we're much more -- the ground is much more fertile for immigration reform, don't you? >> yes. the bill that the house passed last week is something that the business community has been asking for. at least the high-tech business communities. they want o make sure that science and engineers that are educated here in america or that have great ideas and want to be in america have a chance to come

here. that has been difficult over the years. that is something that can get done, but i think they will run into some opposition because people who want a more comprehensive bill that would deal with farm labor, for example, they are worried that if you get that one bill done that helps the business community with the smartest and brightest immigrants, that you won't be dealing with everybody and i think that that will be the rub. >> steve: kay bailey hutchison has got legislation in the senate. we'll see if anything happens there. apparently at the white house yesterday, some blogger was standing this and said hey, look there, goes rachel madow. and then, hey, it's al sharpton. there goes -- what were all the msnbc guys doing at the white house? apparently they were invited by the white house to talk about what the president's pitch is regarding the fiscal cliff. he's been adamant, the top 2% have to pay a higher tax rate and apparently he wanted the folks from the leftist network

all on board with him. >> so in the bush administration, we would sometimes need to do something like talk radio row, i think we called it. it was brilliant. we had the conservative talk radio hosts lined up and get a hole bunch of interviews so they could be persuaded on president bush's plan on things like tax reform, immigration. so from a tactical standpoint, i think president obama is saying, let me talk to people so they make sure they know where i'm coming from. here is the thing that he could do, he is talking to people who agree with him. although some people on the left actual will he want him to go even further left. i think he felt like he need to do shore up those things. but i think president obama is miss ago big opportunity here. i think if he invited some people who don't agree with him, he might be surprised at what he could accomplish. he might be able to charm them or at least persuade them on the merits or at least have been able to reach out to say, look, i tried. >> gretchen: i don't think people should be shocked at the fact that the president invited

these msnbc people. -- we just heard from dana herself that president bush invited conservative radio show hosts -- >> and a big difference is that in a lot of things president bush was having to persuade conservative columnists that he was right on the surge or immigration, social security, all sorts of different things. but he also did something that president obama doesn't do regularly. and that is take a lot of questions from the white house press corp. that is where you get stronger and better answers, sometimes deeper answers to questions that america deserves to know. not -- the problem for president obama is that who he talked to yesterday is a narrow slice of the audience. more people know about that now than would have ever seen it on that other network. he needs broaden out and talk to and try to persuade people that are not just on the left. >> brian: you remember you invited charles charles and other conservatives before he

actually took office? >> remember, they were charmed and they said, huh, maybe this is going to go better than we thought. and then they were bitterly disappointed. >> steve: let's talk a little bit about this. the congressman from in texas, steve forbes out yesterday talking about look, we've got to do something about taxes. the president is even talking a little bit about it. we need a flat tax rather than raising taxes. here is a little snippet of congressman gilbert. listen. >> when you hear fair share, you should think flat tax. warren buffet should paying the same rate as his secretary. under a flat tax, you make more, you pay more. you make less, you pay less. that's fair share. and we have not heard one proposal from this administration that will equalize the rate between warren buffet and his secretary, despite all the rhetoric.

>> gretchen: people are so frustrated i think because tax reform, just like immigration reform, you keep just kicking the can down the road. we heard from president obama yesterday sort of saying, you know, i'm really just not going to tackle that just right now. >> yeah. that's what is unfortunately a missed opportunity because when they had the super committee, which was created after the last debt crisis that we had, they had this great opportunity to do something big, bold that would really equalize the tax code and as a way to have 4% growth that president bush was talk being earlier, how to establish that going forward. and yet, all they're doing really is just tinkering around the edges with not a definite sit reduction plan, but a plan that would raise rates on people that would pay for the government for about 8 1/2 days. it's really not enough and i think everybody is hungry for more. steve forbes had an idea before its time. unfortunately, president obama had a ton of political capital

coming in initially. he could have done something big and bold like that and we could be on our way to a stronger economic recovery. >> steve: there is a lot of people who love the idea of a flat tax. but given the political dynamic in washington, d.c. where the senate is controlled by democrats -- >> i think the flat tax brings people together. >> gretchen: who is against a flat tax? >> well, you'll start to see things, like they'll question whether the mortgage tax reduction will come out. then you get -- >> brian: charitable deductions. >> 10% of americans work for charities. everybody starts to think, yes, that works and we think it would be great, except it would hurt my business. it is a leap. it is very bold and it would be a little bit of a transition period but president obama could have done it. i agree with congressman, it will be nice if people would talk about it, but with they're not even talk being entitlement reform. so they're not going to talk about taxes. >> brian: we're talk being you on "the five." i would not be surprised if some of those topics worked its way

into the format. >> we missed you on "the five." we liked it when you were there to steer the conversation. >> brian: really? >> you're a very good leader. >> brian: thank you. you are a liar! >> steve: we'll be watching today. >> thanks. >> gretchen: coming up, leaks from inside the white house claim president obama is willing to take the nation over the fiscal cliff if he doesn't get his way with raising taxes on the rich. where does that leave republicans now with our entire economy potentially on the line? senator orrin hatch, known for reaching across the aisle joins us next. >> brian: then this brave auto zone employee saved his boss' life, taking down a violent gunman who tried to rob the store. they didn't just say thank you. they said, i have a better idea. you're fired. >> steve: you're out of the zone [ female announcer ] you spend weeks planning it. you spend all day cooking it.

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>> steve: we're less than four weeks away from the fiscal cliff and the only thing for certain is that no deal in sight. yesterday the president took to the air waves to push his hard line stance. >> we're going to have to see the rates on the top 2% go up and we're not going to be able to get a deal without it. >> steve: that's it. our next guest says the president is not being balanced and is pulling a classic bait and switch by not proposing what he actually campaigned on. orrin hatch joins us from capitol hill. senator, good morning to you. >> good morning to you. >> steve: explain that classic bait and switch. >> the president is asking for double the tax increases that he asked before the election. the president wants unchecked authority to be able to borrow more money from the chinese by

having control of the debt ceiling when the constitution says that the ability to borrow money on the credit of the united states is only congress' right. these are kind of things that just said, look, he's not negotiating in good faith. if i was secretary geithner, the secretary of the treasury, i would have refused to bring that offer up because they know that not even the democrats will support that approach. on the other hand, you know, boehner offered $800 billion in revenue increases, but not raising the tax rates. we know once we do that, they stay and they'll spend every dime of it. but we will raise it out of revenue changes in the federal code where we can actually stop some of the provisions and hopefully get enough money to raise the $800 billion. i know we can without taxing almost a million small businesses and costing about 700,000 jobs. that's what a lot of people

don't understand. >> steve: something else a lot of people don't under, we know that at the end of this month and we're right at the fiscal cliff and we look at john boehner and you're right, he did give up revenue. he said okay. i'm going to cave on that. we'll raise revenue. but the president has been absolutely adamant, i'm not budging unless the top 2% pay a higher rate. not just revenue, a higher rate. >> the top 2% will pay higher taxes because of the revenue rates that we will raise without raising the tax rates. once you raise the tax rates, they become permanent. you can't change them. it will be almost impossible to change them and of course, that affects, like i say, almost a million small businesses and about 700,000 jobs. that's what the american people aren't getting from the debate on this subject. frankly, it is a bait and switch because the president has put out a plan that even democrats won't support that literally will not work, that literal israeli going to cause even more

spending than we have right now, and put us even more than the 16 trail, $300 billion debt that we're incurring, going up every day. >> steve: senator, for generations, americans have always tried to make sure that our children, our children's children wind up with a better america, but with this president and this spending, the amount of debt going forward, which our children and our children's children are going to have to pay for, maybe the republicans should just let him sail off the edge and do it for the children. there is going to be pain in the short-term, maybe a little longer than that, there might be a bit of a recession, but in the long-term, it might actually be better. >> it may come down to that and of course, you've got to admit a vast majority of our major media in this country is on his side. no matter what he says, no matter what he does, even though what he's doing is not righteous -- outrageous that his own party won't support. so it's amazing to me that they let him get away with it. we have a president who just

doesn't meet with the people who can help put this together. had, you know, how many meetings has he had in the last couple weeks? hardly any. he's traveling around the country. the day they announced this crazy new program that nobody heard of before, he was out at a toy factory continuing campaigning! why can't he sit down with members of congress, even democrats are complaining that the president won't sit down with them. the fact is, this president is basically i don't think wants to work with congress and without that, without presidential leadership, without him really coming in and saying, look, let's got rid of the chaff, let's get down to business. mr. boehner, you and i are friends, let's get this done. we can do it. i'll give some, you give some. he's not willing to do that. >> steve: you touched on it, time for leadership. presidential leadership. >> can i say one other thing? the difference is $23 billion.

they're willing to take the -- the administration is willing to take us off the cliff for the difference between $23 billion for next year? it's crazy. >> steve: drop in the bucket. all right. >> that's right. >> steve: we thank you very much for joining us from capitol hill. >> thank you. >> steve: coming up, are guns to blame for jovan belcher killing his girlfriend or is it an excuse for criminal behavior? mark stein weighs in next [ male announcer ] coughequence™ #8. waking the baby. [ coughs ] [ baby crying ] ♪ [ male announcer ] robitussin® liquid formula soothes your throat on contact and the active ingredient relieves your cough. robitussin®. don't suffer the coughequences™. ♪ [ male announcer ] campbell's green bean casserole. it's amazing what soup can do

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>> brian: quick head lines. the house votes today on restoring lifetime secret service protection for former presidents. a 1997 law limited protection to ten years. the push now is because of national security concerns and former presidents are doing more. they're not just hanging out. reunited and it feels so good. cops in los angeles recover

dr. phil's 1957 chevy after it was stolen from a repair shop earlier this year. they picked up $100,000 ride in a sting operation targeting an auto theft ring. i'll follow that story later. until then, here is her. >> gretchen: thank you. moments ago, prince william arriving at the private hospital in london where his wife, kate, is in the hospital for severe morning sickness for her third day. the big news of the royal couple expecting their first child has royal watchers abuzz with excitement about the future monarch. here with the latest details, great to see you. >> great to see you. >> gretchen: it looks like she's kind thereof to stay right now. what's the inside scoop? >> she's going to be there for the time being. nobody really knows with this morning sickness. it could be a few days, few weeks, few months, it could be the entire pregnancy. there is a twister because they don't live full time in london. they live in whales, which is many, many miles from london. so prince william has to work,

they'll have to spend time apart. which don't want to do. they're a close knit couple. >> gretchen: one of the interesting issues now is what will they name this beautiful little baby or could it be two, which we'll get to in a moment? what do you think? >> well, the baby is going to be third in line to the throne. will be monarch one day. it will be a traditional, historical name, probably by king or queen that already existed. victoria ii or elizabeth iii or so forth of the won't be diana, i don't think. that's too controversial. maybe for a middle name. >> gretchen: what about if it's a boy? >> boy, maybe looking at sort -- maybe charles, maybe george. william actually will be william v. but it will be a name from time gone by. >> gretchen: let's get to the twin issue. many people have been speculating because of this severe kind of morning sickness that she has, sometimes that's emlet matic of being pregnant with twins.

let's presuppose she needs a c section and the physician has a choice of which baby to remove first, the first one that comes out is the future king or queen of england. >> yes. a lot of the royal physicians, he's got a big responsibility and big discussions will be happening. it doesn't matter if it's a girl or boy. they're changing the law of succession. it used to be a baby brother could supersede the sister. they're changing that rule. it's too antique. it wouldn't survive in 202012. -- 2012. some of our best monarchs have been queens. the first born will be third in line to the throne. >> gretchen: that will be up to the royal surgeon? >> yes. if it's twins and there is a c section. we just have to hope for the best. a care so much about this story? >> i think people love the fairy tale. throughout history, human beings have always had an irrational need to celebrate, to elevate

certain individuals. that's why celebrity culture exists. kate middleton, it would be kim kardashian. americans love that history. they love the pageantry. >> gretchen: few differences between kate middleton and kim kardashian. always great to get your insight. you are an expert on all of it. thanks so much. he saved his boss who was being held at gun point. how is this auto zone employee rewarded? guess what? he was fired. your e-mails pouring in on this. and hypocrisy alert. remember michael moore's latest movie? turns out taxpayers paid for his film! you got to hear this one lashawn's got her christmas list. she's looking for a fijit at toys "r" us. let's see if we can get the same item at walmart f less? okay. fijit friends. fifteen bucks on rollback. wow! that's a savings of over 29 bucks! twenty-nine bucks!!??

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>> if the president and congress don't agree on a budget compromise, then the nation will go over the fiscal cliff. and crash into the double dip recession river where we will struggle in the floundering stock market rapids. but just as we're about to go over the devaluation falls, the nation will be sucked up by the spiraling inflation tornado and find itself on times list.

>> gretchen: that looks too good to be true. the island looks pretty good. >> steve: the ultimate reality show. >> brian: that's where i might be heading. i think it's very important to point out in that is that conan o'brien still has a show. >> steve: a lot of people forget that. >> brian: i totally forgot he had a show. >> steve: too bad. thank you for joining us on this wednesday. we got headlines for you now. he rose to fame on a hit show "malcolm in the middle." >> well, we'll just finished the 45th and final video of the series. we're officially desensitized to violence. >> steve: love that show. here is the news, at 26 years old, frankie nuniz revealing he had a mini stroke. doctors aren't sure why. they're waiting for test results. friends noticed he had trouble speaking and understanding words. he went to the hospital and that's the verdict. mini stroke. >> brian: hypocrisy alert.

michael moore using taxpayer funded incentives to make one of his movies. the only problem, the movie was about opposing taxpayer funded incentives for businesses. capitalism, a love story, a documentary we're talking about. the tax corporate welfare, the state of michigan handed over more than $840,000 so he could do the film and still pay himself. >> gretchen: tim tebow proving he has a heart of gold. 17-year-old matt was hospitalized in a car crash that claimed the life of two of his friends. so his other friends launched a twitter campaign asking tebow to call matt, he's a huge fan, and just two hours later, guess what happened? of course, tim tebow did call. he then tweeted, thanks to everyone who got tebow call matt trending and helped connect us. matt truly inspired me. god bless y'all. i'm sure his critics will find something wrong with that, too. >> brian: auto zone employee fights off an armed robber and helps save his manager. you would think the company

would be grateful. maybe give him a promotion. maybe his own store, certainly a company car. but think again. >> they fired me because i reentered the store with my personal weapon. zero tolerance policy against employees having weapons in the store. >> brian: incredible. we asked you if that is indeed fair. ray in new jersey says the words for this are common sense. he went outside to get gun because this guy came in. any law or rule must be enforced with common sense. steve in kentucky, defending auto zone says he says by introducing another gun into the situation, the employee actually raised the danger level. his actions could have caused the rob tore start shooting, but matt is outraged! he says the actual crime is the employee's dismissal. i will not be shopping there anymore to show support for this heroic young man. >> gretchen: the scary thing is, he took a survey of all the companies that have that policy, i bet it's pretty high

because of litigious we've become. >> brian: we have your back, steve. >> steve: thank you very much. i turned my back to the camera because we have icicles up in the tree. but they're fake. just christmas decorations. normally this time of year, i'd be saying the weather outside is frightful, but today it's quite delightful. yeah. it is. it's actually a nice day here in the northeast. we had a little rain overnight. we all came into work, but as a lot of folk goes to work this hour, it is high and dry. 55 here in new york city. widely scattered showers all the way from new england and the canadian maritimes down through the mid atlantic and back through the southern parishes of louisiana. also another storm out in the san francisco bay area. let's move to the next map. find out what the temperature is as you head out the door on this wednesday. look at that, new york city, it's 55 here in rockefeller center. 53 at la guardia. 43 in caribou, maine.

kind of a cold front moving in. we're outside because tomorrow not so hot. currently almost 60 in raleigh and atlanta. plus 60 along the gulf coast. that cold front moving through portion of texas, too. and it's currently 20 degrees in minneapolis and, of course, perhaps people would like some comfort food on a chilly day like today, which would be mac and cheese. mmm. right? >> gretchen: yeah, it's the ultimate mac and cheese. the new book "mac and cheese please," 50 recipes, put new spins on the classic dish. >> brian: we're joined by cheese guru, maybe the foremost guru in all the world, laura. welcome back. you have brought great cheese with you. >> this time i took it all the way from ireland because i love irish cheese and i decided to bring this cheese called dubliner, among others. >> gretchen: what is it like? >> so dubliner is a delicious cheese that is kind of a

combination of cheddar. it's got the nuttiness of swiss and got that sort of parmesan flavor to it. like three cheeses in one. why don't up taste it? >> gretchen: what are we going to make? >> mac and cheese using dubliner, leaks and bacon. >> brian: what could i do? >> why don't you stir this. these are the leeks. what is cooking, would you like something to stir it with? >> brian: i would like that. >> so you're stirring it in a little bacon fat because bacon is going to go in this as well. what i need to you do, gretchen, is grate a little. it's important to have grated cheese, obviously for mac and cheese. and you can pull off some of the paper. in here, i have cream or creme fresh and milk and some eggs. so all you have to do is mix all that up together. then i add -- >> brian: put that in? >> yeah. then i'm going to put in the bacon and -- you think it needs

cheese? >> brian: can we have cheese music? >> you're cheesy enough, i think. [ laughter ] nothing personal. i'm just kind of thinking that. now add that. this is what makes it so simple. you just add cheese, you got to have the cheese. we'll add the bacon. then, of course, pasta. and then there we go, we mix all that together. >> brian: you know, don't be offensive, i used to get the box of cheese. you're saying this is better? >> you don't have to. it is better than the box. you're using -- with this, you get o choose whatever cheese you want. in this case, we're using this wonderful irish cheese. by the way, let me point out that we're also using -- this is irish butter. if you look at the color, it's more golden than others and that's because the cows are eating all the time in ireland. >> brian: better grass brings you better cheese. >> it does. >> gretchen: it goes from this pot over into these little

dishes and then you put it in the oven? >> yes. you do. you can put in a regular size casserole dish or yes, you can put it in here. these happen to be warm, so i don't know if you would like to taste them. but that is what -- >> brian: laura, this is fantastic. congratulations on your book. >> thank you. >> brian: and gretchen, you can go ahead and try it. she's the foremost cheese expert in all the land. as we do that, there is the book. steve outside, i understand that you're about to show something that has not been seen -- >> steve: i'm inside now. and brian, earlier -- >> brian: you're inside. >> steve: no, i'm inside! i saw you had food, so i came inside. >> gretchen: i'll bring him this. >> steve: the reason i'm inside is this, earlier we told you the story -- thank you, brian -- we told you the story of how apparently some australian dj's made this prank call to the hospital where kate middleton, the duchess --

>> brian: michael christian. >> greg and michael christian are the d.j.'s at a sydney radio station. they pulled this prank and join us on the phone right now. >> gretchen: they coo? >> steve: yes. good morning, fellows. >> good morning. >> hello there. could i please speak to my granddaughter? >> yes. just a moment. >> thank you. >> kate, my darling, are threw? >> good morning, mum. how may i help you? >> hello, i'm just after my granddaughter, kate. i want to see how her little tummy bug is doing. >> she's sleeping at the moment and she has had an uneventful night. and sleep is good for her as we speak. she's been getting some fluids. she was quite dehydrated when she came in. she's stable at the moment. >> i will just feed my little corgis done. >> but they're all okay? >> yes. she's quite stable at the

moment. she hasn't had any vomiting with me and she has been sleeping on and off. >> wonderful. >> it's difficult sleeping in a strange bed. >> yes, of course. >> nothing like the palace, is it, charles? >> brian: so they got through to the hospital and that prank call with those bad accents got all the way through! >> gretchen: didn't sound anything like them! >> steve: that was funny. by the way, apparently the d.j.s have apologized to the royal family. >> gretchen: why bother? >> brian: because they got all the way through. >> gretchen: it's funny. i think what was one of the most funny parts was that they call it retching. she hasn't retched all night. >> brian: they were giving all the indications they should have been stopped in their tracks and they talked about how the hospital kept passing them forward. >> gretchen: i have a feeling they'll improve security. >> brian: do we have permission to put that on fox -- our web

site? >> steve: let me get right on that. >> gretchen: still ahead, first are guns really to blame for the kansas city chiefs player killing his girlfriend? mark stein fired up about this and he's here live next. >> steve: then talk about a misty reunion. brian and friend of the show, super model peta, she's global. >> gretchen: look how excited she is to see brian. >> brian: no, she's happy to see america. >> gretchen: she said yes! i think this should be a brian only [ man ] ring ring... progresso this reduced sodium soup says it mahelp lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just he to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet.

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>> brian: 27 days, that's all america has until it falls off the so-called pick cliff. in order to reach a deal about the country's growing debility, the president says he wants the rich to pay their fair share. i don't know if you heard that before. our next guest has a different message. he says it's not that the rich aren't paying their fair share.

it's that all of america is not. here with us is outstanding columnist, best selling author, with a wonderful singing voice, mark stein, who has got this brand-new cd out which is only a year old, "making spirits bright,." >> this is the holiday season. i love to do the australian queen impersonation. >> brian: you like that! >> i'm calling up to see about my granddaughter-in-law. >> brian: all you need is corgis in the background! you were talk being a phone call before where dj's got to kate middleton's room. we talked before the election, you thought it was -- america was doomed if romney didn't win. this fiscal cliff negotiation seems doomed. am i being pessimistic? >> we're basically spending like europeans, but being taxed like americans. at some point you got to decide which you want. basically american government spending now is getting close to norwegian levels.

and at that point, you can't have american tax levels. >> brian: what is their level? >> they spend 46% of gdp and people pay that. that's reflected in their taxes. america is basically borrowing $188 million every hour in washington. seven days a week, 24 hours a day, thanksgiving, ramadan, whatever. that gap cannot be closed by sticking to to the rich. >> brian: don't you think the president realizes that or do you think he fully realizes that in. >> oh, yeah, he does. this is the cunning thing. he's going to blame it on the rich, blame it on the republicans. but right now if you're just an average working guy with an average income, your taxes are going to go up because for him -- pour for the president, it's not about the economy. it's about government. it's about the size of government. not the economy. >> brian: on sunday night on the nfl sunday, there was a tragedy on saturday, as this chiefs

linebacker blew his head off after murdering his girlfriend. and costas said it's gun that are the problem. he said, i still believe that, but i shouldn't have said it in the middle of a football game. what's your take? >> i think he shouldn't have said it because the problem here in this country is not guns, it's not drugs, it's not porn addiction or whatever. it's the fact that people don't take responsibility for their actions. do you know how many gun owners there are and do you know how few of them put nine bullets into their wives while standing in front of their mothers? see, he did this. there is a lack of personal responsibility in this. switzerland basically is universal gun ownership and the swiss, no swiss guy put nine bullets into his wife. this guy did. >> brian: i think o. j. simpson didn't need a gun, am i right? n no, no. he didn't need a gun. this guy is the issue. if he had had a kitchen knife, he'd have put that into her. >> brian: i don't think a monster like that would have used anything. mark stein, from point. i'll talk to you a little while on radio. congratulations on your holiday

cd. a machine with a wonderful singing voice and fine opinion. thanks. >> thanks a lot. >> brian: who does a very good impression of the queen. up next, she used to be my best friend in the whole world. then along came sean penn. but today i'm attempt to go win her back. and in a fun way. will you stop laughing? let's check in with bill hemmer. he know has thing or two about super models, am i right? >> my money is on sean penn. [ laughter ] see you on radio, brian, a elements later. 100,000 protesting the president of egypt. who wins this showdown? colonel ralph peters on that. the families of those killed in libya still looking for answers even today. senator kelly ayotte on what they need to know and what they should know. the doctor shortage that many fear is already happening today and we will see in the next two hours speaker boehner and the president, separate events as that cliff draws near. martha and i will see you ten minutes away here on "america's newsroom" i love the holidays.

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>> gretchen: when that tsunami hit thailand in 2004, super model petra survived by clinging to a tree for over eight hours. her fiance, unfortunately, swept away. her life was changed forever, so she decided to take a break from modeling. she created the happy hearts fund, a charity that has built more than 70 schools in areas hit by disaster. she joins us now. great to see you again. >> good to see you. >> brian: welcome back. >> gretchen: make light of the fact that brian has this wonderful admiration for you. >> brian: yes. >> gretchen: in the spirit of giving during this holiday season and christmas season, you have developed this wonderful charity out of tragedy. >> out of tragedy. but i think every experience has

their pluses and minuses and we can fine something positive. and one of the positive things coming out of the tsunami was a creation of happy hearts fund. as you said earlier, rebuilding 70 schools and we've been able to do that for amazing partnerships like with clinique and i have a early holiday gift for all of you. >> steve: thank you. >> this is for donna, for you. >> brian: i have to get her an anniversary gift. this will be perfect. this is electric me and petra. >> gretchen: what is the partnership? >> the partnership is actually with clinique, they created happy hearts perfume. it's this beautiful fragrance, money goes to each of the schools. we are so excited because they have the same goal and it's through education is so much part of their dna, so we've been

very blessed with this. >> steve: that's great. i bet it smells happy. it was about ten years ago when you first appeared on the program and as the official archivist for the program remind us, you appeared to be just a regular super model who was dropping by to say hello. >> brian: as regular as a super model can be. >> steve: but then you did the weather and our friendship changed. you became a long-time friend of the program. >> thank you for the chance. >> gretchen: brian has all talked about you. >> brian: right. a little bit of an issue. now, how often, when you're watching television with sean penn do you have fox news on? [ laughter ] >> well, as long as there is talk about positive news, like way to rebuild schools. >> steve: sure. >> brian: when we talk about phony phone calls to the queen? >> yeah. i've heard you were saying that i'm too big to be on a show.

that's it's not bad. i've been busy rebuilding schools. >> brian: a great cause. >> gretchen: we're going to talk more with petra after this break. right back. >> steve: thanks for the gift re. i have a cold... i took dayquil, but i still have a runny nose. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesn't work on runny noses. what? [ male announcer ] it doesn't have an antihistamine. really? [ male announcer ] really. alka-seltzer plus cold and cough fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a fast acting antihistamine to relieve your runny nose. [ sighs ] thank you! [ male announcer ] u're welcome. that's the cold truth! [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus. ♪ oh what a relief it is! ♪ [ male announcer ] to learn more about the cold truth and save $1 visit alka-seltzer on facebook. [ male announcer ] to learn more about the cold truth avoid bad.fats. don't go over 2000... 1200 calories a day. carbs are bad. carbs are good. the story keeps changing. so i'm not listening... to anyone but myself. i know better nutrition when i see it: great grains. great grains cereal starts whole and stays whole. see the seam? more processed flakes look nothing like naturalrains. you can't argue with nutrition you can see.

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